IWC Ingenieur Racer Automatic Chronograph

Previously known as race sponsor and official timekeeper of the Volvo Ocean Race yacht race, the Swiss watchmaking house IWC decided to up the ante and, back in May, 2008, signed a three-year sponsorship agreement to become an Engineering Partner of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team. It was only a matter of time before a special edition IWC Ingenieur Racer automatic chronograph watch was officially announced.

As the other members of the family, the new Ingenieur Racer will be delivered in a slightly oversized body around 45 millimeters in width and 15 millimeters in height. A pair of chronograph push-pieces is elegantly integrated into the body and doesn’t attract too much unnecessary attention.

Crafted from stainless steel, the body also contains a special anti-magnetic cage, which is made from soft iron and protects the finely crafted caliber from strong magnetic fields.

Although in times past you would have to be an electrician, a nuclear physicist or an engineer to need such a magnetically shielded watch, today you only need to own a powerful guitar amp or a just a mobile phone to spoil your timekeeper’s hairspring and ensure an unscheduled visit to your local watch repair shop.

From the visual point of view, this is just another Ingenieur: nothing but a stylized engraved F1 car on the Racer’s solid case back betrays the special relationship between IWC and the German racing team.

As usual, the watch features a pair of recessed sub-dials (a combined 12-hour and 60-minutes chronograph totalizer at 12 o’clock and a small seconds counter at 6 hours) and a rather small date aperture. The facetted hour and minute hands match the similarly shaped hour markers in color and also feature generous amount of white Superluminova.

Besides the usual minute track on the flange, there is also an almost inevitable tachymeter scale on the bezel. While not particularly useful, it still makes the body of the watch look more entertaining and, well, a bit sportier.

The Swiss brand has set the minimum retail price for this model at $13,000 that, while clearly not making the timekeeper even close to being ‘affordable’, still makes it quite competitive for a person sitting on a fence and trying to choose among a sporty Omega Speedmaster, a Breitling and this gorgeous Ingenieur.